Posting a guest blog post isn’t necessarily difficult, but there are some guidelines you have to follow to ensure you’re maximizing your efforts. Here are five things to consider:

1. Find the best sites to post on

The sites in your niche are the ones that will make the most of the time and effort you put into making your blog post. These sites have a built-in audience with similar interests to yours. The tricky thing you have to consider is where to find these sites.

The simplest way to do this is by simply searching for your niche + blogs and see what search engines come up. Chances are, the top hits of this search will include websites that deal with similar subjects and topics, making your guest post very relevant to their audience. This also makes it much easier to pitch your post and raises the chances of you getting published.

2. Identify your goals for guest posting

What do you want to achieve by guest blogging? Identifying your objectives helps you define a clear path towards your goals and map out the necessary steps to reach them. For example, do you want to expand your audience reach in the same industry? Or do you want to gather a new readership base outside of your niche? Your outreach efforts will ultimately depend on how you answer this question.

3. Be sure to produce high-quality content

Any kind of content you produce should be created with quality and relevance in mind. You take considerable effort to craft effective content for your own website. This should be an even bigger priority when you intend to pitch it as a guest post for other publications.

Keep in mind, the sites you will be asking to guest post on will have their own editorial requirements and standards. To that end, make sure that you create unique, high-quality content that meets their stringent guidelines as well as your own.

4. Send tailored, unique pitches

Reach out to your desired sites individually. Try to send unique pitches to the editors of the sites instead of generic ones that will likely end up in the spam folder. Be thoughtful with your pitches and try to personalize them so the site owner or editor will respond well.

5. Follow up

Once you’ve sent your pitch, be sure to follow up and check if the site owner or editor has seen it. Offer to adjust your angle to maximize the relevance of your post for their audience.

Even after they agree to publish your content, be sure to do your due diligence and help the site promote your content on your own social media platforms. Not only will this help draw more eyes to your post, it will also help establish good relationships with editors and site owners. Be sure to track the metrics behind your post as well to see how effective your post is.

Hope my answer helps! If you have any questions, feel free to join the conversation on our Twitter or LinkedIn, or you can simply leave a comment below.